"We're in mourning": Phillip Island loses the Moto GP after 37 years

"This is part of the fabric of our community. We’re not just financially invested here in the Bass Coast, we're emotionally invested."

Author

Jacob Wallace
February 19, 2026

The 2026 Australian Moto GP will be the last time the event races on the Phillip Island grand prix circuit after negotiations between the state government and MotoGP fell through on Wednesday.

The Victorian minister for tourism, sport and major events, Steve Dimopoulos, told reporters the privately owned Moto GP company had demanded the race be moved to Melbourne’s Albert Park.

🗣️ “We know we could have kept the event in Victoria if we’d sold out Phillip Island. We weren’t willing to do that,” Dimopoulos said. “We matched every requirement they had except one, which was to move it to Albert Park.”

Community in mourning

Bass Coast Shire mayor Rochelle Halstead told the Monitor: “Our community is in mourning. Our community has come together for the last 30 years, welcoming this event, so it's a huge hit for us.”

  • 🗣️“This is part of the fabric of our community. We’re not just financially invested here in the Bass Coast, we're emotionally invested and have been for over 30 years.”

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Almost 40 years: The Moto GP started racing on the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit 37 years ago in 1989, and last year's event attracted 93,000 people to the island and provided 284 jobs.

  • The island won the current 10-year Moto GP contract in 2016.

A 2023 economic impact study by Ernst & Young found the race brought $54.6 million into Victoria’s economy, $29.4 million of which was spent locally.

The whole island is hurting: Island Pies owner Ken Chandara told the Monitor his shop in Newhaven gets a lot of extra business when the traffic is flowing through to Ventnor and Cowes.

🗣️“We get a lot of traffic and customers from the event, it’s sad to see it go,” Chandara said.

The CEO of Destination Phillip Island, Kim Storey, told the Monitor it’s not just Phillip Island that will be impacted by the decision. 

  • 🗣️“People stay for the Moto GP in the outer rim of Melbourne and surrounding areas of Gippsland, anything within a two hours drive of Phillip Island was attracting accommodation for the event.”

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Looking to the future: Mayor Halstead said she had received a call from Dimopoulos last night where they discussed looking for other tourist events for Phillip Island.

  • 🗣️“It's important that we start to look at other opportunities that Bass Coast can be involved in, events that we can try to get to fill the gap the GP has left.”

The last Moto GP race to be held on the island will be this year’s Grand Prix in October.

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